The average cost of a 30-second spot in this year's three-hour-plus telecast to be $1.9 million to $2 million, a double-digit bump versus last year and an all-time record, per Kantar Media figures. In the end, the total is expected to reach $114 million.

Yes the night belonged to Leo DiCaprio who finally won an Oscar after like a gazillion years!
But for me the icing on the cake for the 2016 Oscars was also the brilliant Chris Rock. The first time I met Chris he had me floored literally within five seconds of our encounter.

As with last January, to aid you with planning your year's cinemagoing, I've highlighted one film from each month that looks unmissable. It was hard narrowing it down to just one but I've concentrated hard and I think I've pulled it off.

Even moving away from voluntarily saturating yourself, I wonder if, as Chris Rock suggested, the advent of the smartphone is destined to push stand-ups into doing 'safer' material, for fear of offending/losing the crowd, having it uploaded before it's ready and getting lynched for being racist, sexist or slanderous. I worry that he's right.

I doubt very much that Banks is a homophobe. She has worked with many gay artists and is bisexual herself. But the fact that sales of her music have risen sharply since her tweet to Perez Hilton probably suggests that she won't be admonishing the homophobic members of her fan base any time soon... We all know that freedom of speech is fundamental to any democratic society. If you want to say the word "faggot" you are free to do so, but you should also accept the consequences.

Since 1732, when Benjamin Franklin first published Poor Richard's Almanac, America has gradually become obsessed with self-help literature as a way to find the next quick fix to achieving that elusive "American dream".